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Great storyline but it took too long to develop. Most of these movies have the same premise. The director could have shaved an hour off of this film and the audience would still be able to follow the script. All in all, well done.

This movie was fantastic! His earlier films are A+ too. Just a great film maker. You will truly enjoy this epic tale if you like Japanese culture or post-Tarantino style film making. Its highly stylized, engaging, and worth a rental at least! Love this movie. Also watch Ichi the Killer.

As a big fan of old-time samurai movies like Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Zatoichi and their ilk, I was predisposed to like this one, too. That being said, it's far from perfect: the 80 minutes or so leading up to the battle royale finale could have been used more efficiently, and the "cheap-laughs" comic relief character really strained my suspension of disbelief (wait til almost the very end and you'll see what I mean). FYI: The deleted scenes bonus feature contained a few interesting surprises, not all very suitable for younger viewers.

Great look at the absurdity of the code of honor of Samurai who were programmed to serve their master even if he was a tyrant. You must enjoy sword fights to fully enjoy this movie. I had to ffwrd thru those as it was fully half of the movie..

One of the more "realistic" samurai movies. Definately NOT the kind of movie where the samurai pull a sword, pose, and the 10 men around him fall to their deaths. The first 2/3 of the movie provided political and cultural overview of the shogunate era. The main bad guy showed perfectly how broken a caste system was. The last 1/3 of the movie was basically a long and gory battle sequence. Be prepare to watch a lot of blood, mud, and internal organs

Brutal and engaging story during the sunset years of the old Japan in the 1800's: a bunch of Kamikaze Samurai were dispatched to assassin the immoral evil step brother of the reigning Shotgun. The non-stop bloody sword fights in the final 30 minutes did not seem too long, credit to the director.